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Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies

Manorial Records

Records of Buckinghamshire’s manor courts span 750 years and provide unparalleled

insight into rural life at ground level. The system that they reflect used a vocabulary

all of its own and bears little resemblance to modern social structures. In this leaflet a

brief account of the composition of a manor and the development of its courts is given

together with an outline of the sort of records they produced and what you might

expect to find in them. All examples are drawn from Buckinghamshire.

Map of the manor of Dunton in 1653 (CBS ref Ma292)

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Lords of the manor and their

courts

Following the Norman Conquest in 1066 a system of land tenure and local government developed that was based on the manor. A manor could be small or large, based in one geo-graphic locality or with different parts (called members) scattered across a larger area. At the head of a manor was a lord who might be a local knight or one of the king’s chief barons. The lord had rights over the people within his manor, but he also had responsibilities to protect them against marauders and enemies - a situation that was a reality in much of 11th and 12th century England. The lord drew income from the people under him and the land that they worked for him; the manor court de-veloped as the forum for interaction between the lord and his tenants. Before the fifteenth century almost any lord could hold a manor court if he had sufficient tenants, or sufficient business, to make the exercise worthwhile and it became the normal mode of running a landed estate. The court lay at the heart of each manor and it was here that officers were appointed, disputes settled, land transferred and all fines, dues and rents paid to the lord of the manor.

The lord might live locally in the manor house or he might not; the court was run by his steward or reeve and met locally, perhaps in the manor house or an inn or a purpose built courthouse. Rules were drawn up within each manor as to how land was inherited, where animals could be grazed, what payments the lord should expect from his tenants etc. These were called the Customs of the manor and, although they were broadly the same from manor to manor, there were distinctive local variations.

Free and unfree tenants

Between 1066 and the mid 14th century the tenants of a manor were broadly speaking free or

unfree. The free tenants comprised as much as 40% of the manor’s population. They paid rent to the lord, were required to attend his court, and might be required to perform certain tasks. More importantly they could also dispose of their land as they pleased, although any incoming tenant had to pay homage to the lord and swear fealty to him in the court as well as paying an entry fine.

Illustrations of medieval agricultural life: ploughing and pasturing sheep

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The rise and fall of the manor court

Manor courts were at their most active and influential from the 13th to the 16th centuries when the lords were at their most powerful (as shown by the Wars of the Roses). The Tudor monarchs removed much of the power of the manor courts, thereby affecting the lords who benefitted from them, by instituting magistrates, Quarter Sessions and the parish vestry, who were all answerable to the king.

This is the opening page of a book of in-

structions on how to hold courts and the

correct forms of words as a guide for would

-be stewards

(CBS ref D/BASM/88/254 )

Serfdom was inherited but could be broken by manumission (ie set free), whether granted or purchased. The late 14th and 15th century saw the disappearance of serfdom and the demise of villeinage. As well as shedding many of the hated and onerous physical services, villeins sought greater security of tenure and this led to the recognition of Copyhold tenure by the courts of Chancery. From this time the court roll entry recording the transfer of property was regarded as a title, and a copy of it (hence copy of court roll) was given to the incoming tenant as such. In the 18

th and 19

th centuries the distinctions between free and unfree tenants became increasingly

blurred, both having much the same rights over their lands. Converting copyhold into freehold in 1922 recognised an existing state in terms of rights of tenure, although the loss of income to the lord in monetary payments could be considerable.

Manor courts continued but dwindled and in the 17th and 18th centuries many disappeared altogether. The way in which landowners managed their estates also changed, many preferring to employ a single land agent to collect rents and oversee an estate rather than using the cumbersome machinery of a manorial court to regulate agricultural routine.

There were several classes of unfree tenant called serfs, cottars, borders and villeins. Their status was inherited and they were expected to do onerous labour services in farming the lord’s personal land –called his demesne- as well as farming their own strips of land. They could not dispose of their land to whom they wanted nor defend their title outside the manor court, although in practise it did descend through the family according to the custom of the manor which bound the lord almost as much as did the tenant. The services required varied from manor to manor according to the custom there, but generally as well as weekly labour services on the lord’s land they included: a list of payments at different times, in kind or, as time passed, in cash; attendance at the manor court; tenure of office, eg reeve, hayward, constable. Their property could only be passed on to another by surrendering it in the manor court. For a villein his land was not free; for a serf, he himself was not free:in effect a slave.

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A. The Honour Court

An honour was a group of manors and smaller non-court holding units usually termed as fees or fiefs. They were normally held by the king’s tenants in chief and in the feudal hierarchy came between the king and the individual manor. Most operated between the 11th and 15th century and few survived beyond the Tudor period. A medieval honour normally had a castle as its caput or centre; no honours had their caput in Buckinghamshire. The Victoria County History identifies which honour an individual manor belonged to. The following honours had five or more Buckinghamshire manors attached to them: Berkhampstead, Giffard, Gloucester, Dudley, Leicester, Peveral and Wallingford. Just when the old honours were dying out, Henry VIII created some new honours out of the dissolved monastic lands he had acquired. Windsor and Hampton Court honours had one Bucks manor each, but several in North Bucks were attached to the Bedfordshire Honour of Ampthill.

Detail from one of the Chesham court rolls. Is it a doodle

or a portrait of one of the officials?

(CBS ref D/BASM 18/201)

An honour court might not always meet in the same place, rather rotating around its members. Although it did occasionally receive presentments for misdemeanours in the same way that normal manor courts did, on the whole it did not. It was more concerned with receiving certainties (a fixed amount of money raised from each of its manors or fiefs) and recording the appointment of officers like constables, ale tasters and haywards. A very few honour records are held at the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies, but many more are to be found at the National Ar-chives and in other record offices.

Different types of manor court

In the medieval period there were three types of manor court operating in Buckinghamshire: the honour court, the court leet, usually with View of Frankpledge, and the court baron. After the 16

th century the honour court generally died out and the courts leet and baron were increasingly

held together. In theory the court baron was supposed to be held every few weeks, but in practise it was often less frequent. The court leet, often referred to a the View of Frankpledge, was held once or twice a year.

The court house at Long Crendon was built for holding manorial courts in the fifteenth century (CBS ref PhLong Crendon 63)

By the close of the 19th century the main purpose of the manor and its remaining courts was the transfer of the particular type of land that belonged to the lord called copyhold. By this time copyhold land could be sold, mortgaged or inherited like freehold land, but it still had to be done through the manor court. This changed in 1922 when the Law of Property Act finally rendered manorial courts obsolete by converting all the lands held as copyhold into freehold.

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C. Court Baron

Theoretically held every three weeks, this was a manor court attended by unfree tenants (villeins), and from time to time the free tenants, who owed suit to the court. If they could not attend they were essoined (excused) but had to pay a fine. A jury or homage was empanelled from the better off tenants . Agricultural customs were promulgated and those who had broken them were brought to book. The customs set out the penalties to be paid. Disputes relating to trespass, assault and debt could be brought and fines levied. Other customary dues were paid at this court: merchet on the marriage of a tenant’s daughter; heriot on the death of a tenant; an entry fine on being admitted to property; leyrwit(e) on the birth of an illegitimate child. The transfer of manorial land held by the tenants whether by inheritance or sale was an integral part of court business.

B. Court Leet with View of Frankpledge

Held only once or twice a year the core business of the leet court was to review the tithings within its jurisdiction, called View of Frankpledge. Originating in Anglo Saxon times this meant submitting the names of men over the age of 12 who guaranteed the behaviour of those within their jurisdiction and presenting miscreants and reporting misdeeds. The tithings were usually small parts or members of an individual manor which held both courts leet and baron. In theory the leet courts dealt with more serious matters like crime, affray, assize of bread and ale, and appointment of officers. However, the differences between the court leet and court baron are in practise rather blurred and with the passage of time the two courts become intermingled.

Court rolls recorded the proceedings of all types of court from the 13th century. Usually

made of parchment and in latin before 1733. These rolls for Chalfont St Peter form one of

the longest and most continuous series at the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies

(CBS ref D/BASM/15)

On each occasion the incoming tenant had to be “admitted” to the property by the physical action of receiving a rod from the lord’s steward, taking an oath of fealty and paying an entry fine. Similarly an outgoing tenant had to “surrender” his property to the lord by passing the rod to the steward. This physical ceremony is mirrored in freehold by the livery of seisin. In a similar way, it was the transfer of the rod and accompanying oath which effected the conveyance. Even quite important people had to undergo this ceremony; for example Lord Carrington had to be admitted to certain of his Bledlow properties at the manor court of Eton College in 1801.

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The Records of a manor court

The main types of record produced by Buckinghamshire manor courts are as follows:

1 Court Roll

This is the main final record of the court. There is a great deal of uniformity about the structure of a court roll, even from the earliest times. Unfortunately it was written in abbreviated latin until 1733, usually on unwieldy rolls of parchment. The heading describes the name of the manor, the name of the lord, and the date. Then follows a list of the jurors who were empan-elled to make pre arranged presentments, award payments and confirm the custom of the manor. The presentments are laid out in order, often each is prefixed with the word “Item”. The appointment of the officers of constable,hayward and ale taster are recorded. Presentments are made of those who have broken the customary byelaws, whether by enclosing part of the common land, leaving a dung hill in the street or grazing their animals in the wrong place. Presentments of a criminal nature like assault or affray, trespass and debt can also be recorded in court rolls. Penalty fines called amercements are often included after the presentment. Many entries are to do with the transfer of property, whether by inheritance or sale.

2 Account Roll

Accompanying the court roll was the equally important account roll (also known by its latin name of Compotus), usually annual, on which was enumerated the money received by the bailiff or reeve. Like the court roll it is written in latin and unfortunately the abbreviation is even more tor-tuous. On the front side of the roll is an account of receipts generated within the manor and those generated without. Thus here we find details of rents and sale of garden produce. Then follows an account of expenditure, for example in repair of buildings or wages.

On the reverse of the roll is an account of the flow of grain and livestock into and out of the man-or. Here we find a description of the animals kept in the pound and the amount of grain stored in the granary. Manorial accounts were not kept like modern accounts recording income and ex-penditure with profits and losses, but were written on a charge/discharge basis – what the bailiff ought to receive rather than what he actually did. Nor is there a capital value placed on, for ex-ample, the stock or the grain.

Part of an account roll for Wavendon, 1429-

30. The account starts with arrears of rents,

then assize rents, then the rents paid for farm-

ing the demesne. In this case the manor was

owned by Woburn Abbey and the lord’s de-

mesne was farmed or leased out to tenants.

This records William paying 6s 8d for a prop-

erty called Hardwyk.

(CBS ref AR102/2007)

One of Chesham’s court rolls. Some of these have

highly decorated headings. This one is dated 1530

(CBS ref D/BASM 18/201 )

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4 Rental

This was a list of tenants and the amount of rent paid for the property they held, whether land or dwelling. Sometimes it included a brief description of the property. The rent was normally expressed as a monetary value although sometimes it might be livestock, (eg a capon or hen). Rentals are often in English and are found from the 14

th century onwards.

5 Extent

Extents were concerned with the value of the manor and indicate how much income the lord could expect to derive from his arable and meadow lands and also from resources like mills, woods, and villein (tenant) services. Entries were often summary, they may or may not include personal names, but always have a value attached. Extents were usually in latin. They belong to the 12th-15th centuries and generally gave way to the survey. Brief extents frequently formed part of Inquisitions Post Mortem from the end of the 13

th century.

6 Custumal

The custom of the manor was all important in directing how a manor was run, in terms of services rendered to the lord and also how farming was arranged. A custumal or list of customs sets out in black and white, details of rents, services and customs by which tenants held their land. They also often contain what we would call byelaws, detailing local agricultural practices like pasturing of animals, arrangements for harvest and also edicts to promote good conduct among the tenants. Associated and sometimes accompanying this was a list of Pains which stated how much should be paid if any of these local laws were violated. Like the survey this was often part of the court roll. Separate lists, rolls or even books also survive.

3 Survey

Surveys before 1400 comprise a description of property, by whom held and what manual and monetary services were rendered for it. By 1400 the services began to be replaced with a more detailed description of where the property lay, its boundaries and acreage, and financial payments attached to it. Sometimes the manor court held a court of survey where particular questions called articles about who held what were posed to the jury and their replies recorded. They vary in detail but some are accompanied by a rental and list of customs. From the 16

th and

17th centuries survey books with detailed descriptions of every piece of land on a manor become

more common . Regrettably maps rarely accompany the written survey before the 18th century, and even then the map has not necessarily survived. Before 1733 surveys might be in Latin or English.

Manorial Survey of Great Marlow in a bound volume

made in 1554 soon after Sir William Paget , a rising

star of the Tudor period, had acquired the manor.

The opening page sets out the way in which the

survey was conducted: a Court of Recognition was

held and a jury had to respond to a given set of

inquiries .

( CBS ref D/BASM/45A/1)

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10 Court Papers

Court papers which might then be copied into the final court roll or kept for reference, include lists of jurors, lists of suitors (ie those who owed suit to the court and should be present) or residents, rentals, accounts of fines and other amercements received at court.

9 Draft court rolls and minute books

The final court roll must have been compiled from rough drafts and documents exhibited at the court. Very few of these survive from the medieval period, but from the 17h century they survive in increasing numbers. Draft court rolls gave way to minute books, although it is not unusual to find both.

Above: A draft court roll can take the form of a series of papers tied or

pinned together as a file of papers. This is often called a court file.

This is one of many for Ivinghoe (dated 1672) and includes a list of

suitors, presentments, minutes of the proceedings and a notice that the

court was to be held.

(CBS ref D/BASM/46/127)

Left: a list of residents within the manor of Marlow in 1760

(CBS ref D/CEBox D)

11 Stewards’ papers: expenses, correspondence, receipts

Stewards’ records can include expenses of holding the court, correspondence with tenants and landlord and receipts for rent. Often a solicitor, he would have correspondence and papers relat-ing to transfer of property and disputes between tenants.

8 Court book

From the 17th century onwards the parchment court roll began to give way to the court book. Still in Latin until 1733, they are at least usually easier to use and quite often have an index. The layout of the court record remains the same. From the mid 19th century onwards they often include deeds of enfranchisements (see below). At the same time the frequency of courts fell markedly in most manors. By this time the steward was very often a solicitor and tenants would go to his office when selling or inheriting property and these were then written up in the court book as out of court surrenders or admissions. Copyhold land could be mortgaged in the same way as freehold and these were recorded as conditional surrenders.

7 Terrier

Similar to a survey, a terrier is a topographical

description of the manor arranged by field,

giving acreage rather than value or rent.

Where there were open fields the property was

described strip by strip.

Map of the manor of Soulbury in 1769 showing the open field strips.

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Why are manorial records useful?

Before the mid 16th century manorial records are chief among the few records chronicling the lives of ordinary people and the communities in which they lived. The descent of property had to be recorded on the court roll making it possible to trace generations of the same family long before parish registers started. They also reveal the organisation and preoccupations of local communities and reflect national events eg the Black Death of 1348; the impact of the lollards in the fifteenth century; the dissolution of the monasteries in 1538. The organisation of agriculture and the impact of inclosure, not to mention crime and punishment (particularly in the medieval period), can also be gleaned from these records. They are perhaps most useful when used in conjunction with other records, eg parish registers, inclosure maps, Quarter Sessions records.

13 Deeds of enfranchisement and agreements relating to manorial incidents.

Deeds of enfranchisement were issued from the late 19th century onwards and allowed copy-holders to buy back their property from the lord of the manor, rendering their copyhold land free from fines, heriots, suit of court etc. It was thenceforth freehold. When copyhold tenure was abolished in 1922 and all remaining copyhold lands were turned into freehold, existing lords were able to claim compensation for the loss of revenue from their manors, and these revenues were termed manorial incidents. Such records are often found written up in the final court books of a manor or separately as part of the stewards’ papers - frequently the steward was also the lord’s solicitor. Additionally there are records at the National Archives dealing with these (ref MAF9,13 20 and 27).

A copy of the court roll from the manor of Long Crendon. Joseph Gibson was admitted to one yard

land in Long Crendon on the surrender of Jacob Woodward in 1781.

(CBS ref D78/2/1)

12 Copies of the court roll: Surrenders and Admissions

Copies of the court roll acted as a proof of tenure for manorial tenants and emerge in the late 14

th and 15

th centuries. They are usually single sheet parchment or paper documents. They

begin with the heading found on the court roll of the court and sometimes include the jurors. They are easily distinguished from the court roll by the opening line which almost invariably reads (whether in Latin or English) “At this court comes/came…” and is followed by details of the surrender and admission to the property.

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Where can I find information about manors and manorial records in the CBS?

The Victoria County History for Buckinghamshire was published in four volumes (1905-1927) and provides a comprehensive descent of manors within each Buckinghamshire parish. The volumes are also available online at www.british-history.ac.uk.

The quickest and easiest way to find manorial records for Buckinghamshire at the CBS and elsewhere is to use the online Manorial Documents Register on the National Archives website. This can be simply found by typing “manorial documents register” into Google or a similar search engine. The register contains a brief description and includes document references.

The biggest collection of Buckinghamshire manorial records in the CBS is to be found under the reference D/BASM which is an artificial collection of all the manorial records transferred from the County Museum in 1987. The detailed hard copy catalogue in the archive search room also contains cross references to records in other collections.

In 2007 Eureka Partnership published a handlist entitled Buckinghamshire manorial documents and their whereabouts (published by in 2 volumes, author Angela Hillier). Intended primarily for the use of family historians this includes title deeds and some other records excluded from the Manorial Documents Register.

Where are the records of manor courts?

Records of the manor courts of Buckinghamshire survive from 1246 to 1922. No other series of local records covers such a long period yet they remain underused. Half of the records are held in the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies (CBS) but the remainder are scattered across the country and some are even in America. In 1925 a register was set up to record the whereabouts of all surviving records from manor courts. In 2008 the Buckinghamshire section of the Manorial Documents Register was revised and put online at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/mdr. This is intended to be a definitive list of records of the manor courts of Buckinghamshire and it defines what records should be included in it and what should be left out. It can be added to if and when more court records come to light.

Opening page of the Manorial Documents Register on the National Archives website. All counties should be included by

2020. Although now combined with TNA’s all encompassing “Discovery” online catalogue, advanced searches by parish,

date and county are still available.

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Bibliography

Victoria History of the county of Buckinghamshire ed. William Page (4 vols;1905-1927)

Angela Hillier Buckinghamshire Manorial Records and their whereabouts (Eureka Partner-ship,2007)

P. D. A. Harvey, Manorial Records, British Records Association Archives and the User no. 5 (Gloucester, 1984).

M. Ellis, Using Manorial Records, PRO Readers’ Guide no. 6 (London, 1994).

Denis Stuart, Manorial Records: An introduction to their transcription and translation (Chichester, 1992).

H.S Bennet, Life on the English Manor: A study of Peasant Conditions 1150-1400 (1960).

Z. Razi and R. Smith, Medieval Society and the Manor Court (Oxford, 1996).

Mark Bailey The English Manor c1200-c1500 (Manchester Medieval Sources, 2002).

Nathaniel J Hone The Manor and Manorial Records (1925)

Glossary

Manorial courts developed a unique vocabulary. Several good glossaries are around which make understanding the records easier, both online and in hard copy.

Lancaster University has online glossary with transcription and translation of manorial records which can be accessed through the Manorial Documents Register website at http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/projects/manorialrecords/using/index.htm.

Nottingham University also have an online glossary and illustrated introduction to manorial rec-ords which can be accessed at http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/researchguidance/manorial.aspx

There is a good glossary at the back of Mark Bailey’s book The English Manor c1200-c1500 (Manchester Medieval Sources, 2002)

Illustrations

The references to the illustrations used in this leaflet are as follows:

Map of Dunton, 1653 Ma 292

Steward’s guide for holding courts D/BASM/88/254

Photograph of Long Crendon courthouse PhLong Crendon 63

Illustration from Chesham court roll D/BASM 18/201

Chesham Court roll, 1530 D/BASM 18/201

Wavendon Account roll AR102/2007

Survey of Manor and borough of Great Marlow, 1554 D/BASM/45A/1

Map of the manor of Soulbury BAS maps 72

Ivinghoe court file D/BASM/46/127

List of Marlow residents, 1760 D/CE Box D

Admission of Joseph Gibson, 1781 D78/2/1

Other illustrations are taken from Nathaniel Hone’s book cited above

Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies, March 2015